My Lords, my name is on this amendment, and I am pleased to support it and to follow the very clear explanation that we have just heard.
I speak briefly to subsections (3) and (4) of the proposed new clause. The former calls for the report to deal with
“indirect or cumulative effects … distortion of competition or trade”
and, as I am sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, would be pleased to hear were she still here
“impacts on prices, the quality of goods and services or choice for consumers”
then moves on to consider
“the health and safety of humans, animals and plants … standards of environmental protection”
and other issues that have come forward.
This is another way of trying to do many of the same things that have come through the variety of amendments that your Lordships have heard over the course of the last three days in Committee. All the Ministers have all talked about level playing fields, and the purpose of this legislation is to create a level playing field. We all subscribe to that. The purpose of subsection (4) is to create an informational level playing field, to ensure that all the Governments are receiving the same information and create some transparency so that the outside world—indeed, the companies involved and the people involved—also receives that information.
I am sure that the Minister will stand up in a few minutes and give us very good reasons why this amendment should be withdrawn, but before he does, can he undertake to ensure that the level playing field applies not only to the commercial and trading issues, but also to the information that all the players receive when these decisions are being taken?